


Maps

by Larathia



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-01-18
Packaged: 2018-01-09 05:11:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1141840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larathia/pseuds/Larathia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For jujitsuelf, who requested something with Ichabod and maps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maps

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jujitsuelf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujitsuelf/gifts).



Ichabod turned the little box over in his hands. "And this is a map," he said slowly, but not dubiously. The devices of this age where ubiquitous and seemed to do just about anything.

"Yes," agreed Abbie, with her I'm-being-patient-with-you smile. "Turn it on. Press that little button on the top, there."

Ichabod obeyed, tensing a little in case the box decided to make noise at him, relaxing when it didn't. Instead, the flat screen on the front flickered into life, showing a rotating globe. He was just about to ask what to do next, when it seemed to pick a spot and zoomed in. And further in. And further. Until it showed a dot, in a green space, and a single somewhat wiggly line that he recognized as matching the shape of the road up to his cabin.

He frowned at the box. "...It is a map of my front yard?" he asked. "Ah, thank you, Lieutenant, but I'm already quite familiar-"

"Tap the screen with your finger," said Abbie, in that being-patient tone.

Ichabod did so, and a series of little icons filled the screen. One said 'Navigate to', so he tapped that. The screen then showed a series of jumbled letters in the pattern of a keyboard. He turned this toward Abbie. "My apologies. Did I break it?"

"If you know the address of where you want to go," said Abbie, "you write it in that box by tapping the letters." She took out her wallet, and a business card, holding it out to him. "This has the address of the precinct offices. Try that."

It was a slight juggle, holding the box, and the card, and still having fingers free to tap out the letters it wanted. When he'd finished, the little spinning globe appeared again, and then the image of the road by his front door. But this time the road had a big arrow overlaying it. "Go to the end of the drive," the box said, startling him so badly he nearly dropped it. "Then turn left."

Abbie smiled. "There. You see? And when you get there, it tells you the next part of the route, until you're where you wanted to be."

Ichabod quickly turned the thing off, in case it had problems with him not immediately walking to the end of the drive, or not turning left. "Ah. Thank you, Lieutenant," he said, a bit awkwardly, and trying not to watch the box in case it did anything else. "I'm - I'm sure it will prove most useful. But I had _asked_ for a _map_."

"That is a map," said Abbie, nodding toward the box. "One that always knows where you are."

Ichabod thought about pointing out that a box knowing exactly where he was, under the circumstances, was not actually a reassuring thing, but thought perhaps now might not be the best time for it. Instead, he said, "I had thought more to understand where everything _else_ is, Lieutenant. Sleepy Hollow has grown so much. And there are so many coffee shops."

Abbie laughed a bit at that, and raised a hand. "Oh, all right. Hold on." She went outside, to her car, and returned with a folded paper. "This more your speed?"

A map! A genuine paper map. Ichabod unfolded it with due respect, laying it on the table. And stared at it.

It was so _precise_. No blank areas, except those marked as conservation areas or forest preserves. The colors all seemed flush with the paper. "Maps...used to be works of art," he said slowly. "This does not seem to be so. And where is the cartographer's mark?"

"It's a printing," said Abbie simply. "A few years out of date, but handy enough when you get lost."

"Yes, I can see it's a copy," agreed Ichabod, "but where is the signature of the cartographer? Who performed the measurements?"

Abbie blinked. "How should I know? Satellite, probably. It doesn't matter, it's an accurate map. That's what you wanted, you said."

It was. He'd wanted to understand better how Sleepy Hollow had grown, how it was laid out, where things were in relation to each other. What had stayed, what had faded. He just hadn't expected the map itself to be one of those faded things.

Cartography had been such a blending of art and science. The careful drawing of borders, the outlining of shores and rivers, took mathematical skill and artistic grace. A good map was a useful work of art you could frame and hang on a wall. And now it was a box. That talked.

Such the march of progress.

Ichabod summoned a smile and nodded his head toward Abbie. "I did, Lieutenant. Thank you. I am sure this will prove most helpful in getting my bearings."

Abbie smiled back, recognizing that Ichabod was firmly sitting on the urge to wax rhapsodic about something for her benefit. "And once you've gotten the hang of the GPS, and all this crazy is over with, we can introduce you to the road trip."


End file.
